It’s a sort of butterfly effect.

You change one detail and the whole story changes.  It can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing.

With Mercury’s retrograde cycle finally ending on Sunday I found myself with an unusual flurry of activity.  See, the last query I sent out to an agent was way back in July.  July 6th, to be exact.  At that point I pretty much stopped. I did send out the query to the smaller publisher, but otherwise I did nothing.

I waited on results from contests, I wrote a (very) little, I got my response back from the publisher, and I collapsed.

Not because the editor was cruel or the tips were unmanageable, or that I couldn’t handle the c/c.  It just was not time for me to work on it.

I admit for one night I wallowed.  Cried into my keyboard and my facebook page.

Then I left it. I left the notes, I left the story, I worked on my personal blog, and I worked on some of the 100 words projects. I even posted a couple of times here.

About a week ago I picked up those notes and fiddled with the ms, but not with much enthusiasm.

Then Sunday out of the blue I got a request for a partial. One of the last agents I had queried requested more material. A bit of hope sparked again, but something in me made me hold off.

Then yesterday I got the results/feedback from the one contest I entered.  I didn’t final, but I got moderately helpful notes from one of my two judges.  Plus, both confirmed my suspicion that my synopsis pretty well sucked (though not so bad, I did get a request for a partial off of it).

Now to the point of my post (finally)…

Today, energy and excitement returned.  Based on the notes I got, I rewrote the synopsis. It’s FAR less detailed than my last one. I left out a lot of secondary characters I mentioned in the original. I actually left out part of the mystery to focus on the romance.  I cleaned it and tightened it.

Then I looked at my ms again. I looked at the notes I’d received.  The first two chapters were fine, but an idea tickled me on the third based on those notes (part of what was requested).  I realized that with one small change I could alter those opening chapters.  In one moment the manuscript could make more sense, run smoother, and cleaner.

Now I’m going to have to go through and make some minor adjustments in the next few chapters along with the basic cleanup recommended by the editor…but with one change I feel confident again.

So I was right. I didn’t have anything to lose. I had everything to gain.